


Cookies for Yukinya

by Hanzohara



Category: BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game)
Genre: Baking, F/F, alt title: the one where sayo makes cat cookies for yukina, birthday fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-27
Updated: 2018-10-29
Packaged: 2019-08-08 06:36:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16424291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hanzohara/pseuds/Hanzohara
Summary: So Sayo made cookies for Yukina's birthday, but she isn't really the most skilled in the kitchen. Nonetheless she makes a good effort at making cookies that... sort of resemble cats?





	1. Baking

**Author's Note:**

> AAAAAA I wanted to write this for Yukina's birthday but I got super busy with classwork the past few days so,,,, please forgive me Yukinaaaa! Chapter 2 will be posted,,, later tomorrow when I have the time, though it'll be just Sayo givin' the cookies to Yukina and the reaction ' stuff!

October twenty-fifth, the screen read, four-thirty-seven.

A small frown tugs at Sayo’s lips, turning down the corners of her lips as she comes to rest on the sidewalk just outside the market’s doors. It is a bit later than she would have liked, given that her mom will likely have already started preparing dinner. Dinner itself isn’t the problem per se, not with the promise of stir fry and teriyaki salmon to celebrate the recent successes of both the twins’ bands. Pastel*Palettes having their first concert with no… set backs so to speak and decent media coverage and Roselia having record attendance at their latest showcase. No the food would be delicious, she had no doubt in her mother’s cooking abilities. It was just… she would have liked to start ahead instead of needing to wait the likely hour and a half it would take to clean up after dinner and wash through all the dishes because somebody has been majorly slacking on them.

Bright green gaze falls to the bags hanging from her arm. It’s not terribly hot outside given that the season has finally cooled down to something consistently below sixty, but it wouldn’t do to have all the cold ingredients she’s bought sitting out for the sun to eventually get. With that in mind, she resolves to return home as quickly as possible, maybe even skip out on extra tuning practice ( yes, she’s very dead set on this ) to help prepare dinner, or at the very least take a chunk out of the load of dishes Hina should have been doing throughout the week. She easily sets into a stride in the direction she knows to be the station.

From there it’s just a brief stop in so she can stop by the magazine boxes and see if the latest edition of that junior music ranking one is in stock before she’s on her way home. The magazine is, surprisingly, also in tow at the cost of another couple hundred yen out of her wallet. A willing sacrifice if only to make sure that Roselia is still ranking high and see what it is they need to work on to rank higher.

She arrives home with something of an anticipatory bounce in her step, shoes quickly taken off so she can get the cold supplies to the fridge. As expected, there is already a pleasant aroma wafting around the house, and she can feel her mouth begin to water already as she places the smell, likely the stir-fry. It’s heavy with spice if the scent is anything to base it off of, ever intended to make sure Hina doesn’t think it’s under-flavored. It’s much more apparent when she steps into the kitchen, much stronger and she takes a second to glance in the direction of the stove to see how far along dinner is.

Her mom, taking notice that Sayo’s in offers her a kind smile as she stirs the vegetables in with another generous dollop of sauce.

“Got everything you need, hon?”

“I do, yes.”

Her mother gives a pleased nod of the head, gesturing to the fridge before going back to the sizzling veggies.

“I cleared out some space near the top so it would stay extra cold for you! Dinner should be ready in… ooh say half an hour or so?”

“Can I help in anyway?” That gets a chuckle out of her mother, and she glances toward Sayo with a soft look.

“You really want to make those for her, huh?”

To this Sayo looks away, quickly busying herself with setting all the freshly bought ingredients into the empty shelf.

"I can’t say there’s much to help with here, the fish is being grilled now, stir fry is almost done… it’s just a matter of the fish being cooked right… I suppose if you really want to get to it as soon as possible, maybe set the table for me ahead of time?”

“I can do that.”

And she goes ahead to do just that. Four plates are taken from one of the cupboards after she shuts the fridge, quickly followed by an appropriate number of chopstick sets. Napkins follow, and finally she begins to get drinks prepared. The stir fry has been moved to the island, set over a trivet with an empty one next to it for, presumably, the pan the fish is grilling in. It smells pleasant, and upon closer inspection, Sayo delights in finding that there’s no carrots subtly mixed and doused in sauce to try and disguise them. One less thing to worry about, it seems.

There’s little else to do while her mother is busy cooking the remainder of dinner, so she heaves a sigh and drags herself over to the sink to begin doing Hina’s chore. If her mother takes note of her annoyance, and she’s got a feeling she does, she makes no mention of it, instead electing to hum something obscure that Sayo can’t quite place over the sound of water rushing on plates.

She’s placed a good seven or eight cleaned plates into the washing machine when the sound of the front door catches her attention. Ah, dad must be home as well. And just in time too, as the resounding click of the stove means the fish must be done as well. Taking in another quick breath, she can almost taste the scent of honey glaze in the air, and she smiles in spite of herself, just a small thing that quickly morphs back into a thin line when her father enters the kitchen.

Behind her, she can hear him approach her mother, give her a kind greeting and a fond kiss to the cheek before she can hear him making his way to her. The water is shut off, and her hands begin wringing in a nearby towel as she turns to look up to him respectfully.

“Welcome home. How was work?”

He chuckles before her, likely amused by her need to always get right to business. Rather than answer, he raises a hand to hug her around her shoulders while balancing his briefcase in the other hand. A hug she briefly returns for a moment before taking a step back.

“It dragged on, but I’m here now, so that day can’t be too bad.”

Her eyes roll at that response; it’s not the first time she’s heard and it certainly won’t be the last. He chuckles against and raises a hand to tousle her hair, earning a grumble in response as she quickly goes to smooth it out. The commotion has gained Hina’s attention, if the sound of thumping footsteps upstairs, and soon down the stairs is anything to go off of.

After greetings are exchanged and everything is said and done, the family settles down for dinner. It goes by with minimal small talk, mostly on the side of their mother and father offering questions about how the bands are going, if anything was needed for either of them, if their strings were fine or had any snapped. Hina’s the one answering most of the questions, Sayo content to retreat into her own thoughts and idly eat dinner. Once in awhile, her father offers a question to her, to which she gives a firm but short response. Mostly about how the band was taking their slowly growing popularity because, as he put it, a couple of the guys back at the firm had some kids that liked listening to them. Hina tried vehemently to address Sayo’s plans for the evening, subtlety all but thrown to the wind by the end of dinner. It’s all for naught though, as Sayo shuts her down at every turn with a flat tone, eventually resulting in Hina thanking her parents for the food, and promptly heading back into the kitchen.

Sayo follows suit after a few minutes more of finishing her own food, and is surprised to find that Hina hasn’t left, instead choosing to finally take to her chore. The pans are what she’s doing first, oddly enough, scrubbing at the grease and remains of dinner with surprising intensity. Out the corner of her eye, Hina notices her and flashes a bright smile.

“Hey big sis! I figured I would get this done as best I could so I can get outta your hair for, well, y’know.” And then she gives a sly wink in Sayo’s direction before returning to the dishes. She remains conflicted for a moment before taking in a deep breath, and quietly sidling up next to her. That shocks Hina enough to still her hands, familiar green eyes peering at her in curiosity.

“Give me the dishes you clean and I’ll set them in the machine…” Hina’s lips immediately shift into a wide grin, and she nods her head. “You’ll get out of my hair faster, don’t get it confused.”

Hina simply giggles in response, wiping at Sayo’s previous plate and handing it to her to place in the machine.

“Wouldn’t dream of it, big sis!”

As expected, the dishes go by much quicker than they would have on their own, and Sayo sighs in relief when they finally finish, setting the machine to run. Out of nowhere, Hina practically leaps on her, giving her a bear hug and laughing brightly, even though Sayo is going out of her way to remain scowling through the entire thing.

“Even though we were just doing chores, I’m glad I could spend time with you! And even more, being able to help you out! It's such a zappin' feeling, y'know?”

She pauses, shifting from foot to foot in an awkward silence before glancing back up to Sayo.

“Aha, well, I guess you’re just gonna do your thing huh?”

Sayo gives a noncommittal nod.

“Uh... y’know, if you need some help or anything, I’m sure I could help you out…”

Sayo pointedly shoots her a gaze and Hina raises her hands in mock surrender. She giggles quietly and turns on heel to head for the staircase.

“Yeah, yeah I get it, I’ll quit bothering you… Good luck… oh and big sis?”

She peers back in the kitchen, catching Sayo gaze for a second.

“I know since it’s me, it’s not all that convincing to you, but no matter how you make them, I’m sure she’ll love them!” She offers a thumbs up before turning back again and dashing up the stairs, likely to her room.

In spite of Hina’s dismissal ahead of time, Sayo takes a moment to smile softly at her encouragement. They were getting better, slow by slow, or rather: Sayo was getting better. It certainly did help to hear her words, and she turns back to the fridge with newfound confidence.

She’ll damn well stay up all night to get these cookies done for tomorrow!

\---

Butter, Milk, Eggs all have been taken from the fridge, and from the pantry there’s baking powder, salt, vanilla extract… everything has been prepared. And there’s certainly a lot more here than she needed, but that was done intentionally. Sayo, for all her desire to do this right, knows she isn’t going to get it done perfectly the first time around, so she figured it would be better to prepare for failure ahead of time. At the despair of her wallet, of course.

The beginning is the easiest part really, just throwing in the butter and sugar into the bowl to cream, then adding in a couple eggs. She stirs them in together for a few moments until it looks decent? She knows what to look for after having worked under Tsugumi’s watchful eye in a couple of those baking classes, but the color seems… off. With a smack to her forehead, no doubt leaving some of the flour she had measured out on her skin, she looks to the side. Perhaps it would do some good to, you know, add all the ingredients before making judgement. Off to a great start she muses to herself, and huffs out in annoyance, pouring in first the milk and vanilla to mix in as well.

Really, she shouldn’t be thinking so hard about this all things considered. In her heart of hearts, she knows Hina’s earlier words will be true: Yukina would be glad to just know she had attempted, though she likely wouldn’t show it. It’s just that underlying yearning to be better than average, to throw everything she had into what she does, even if it’s just as paltry a task as making cookies. That and, well honestly? Growing up with the crushing weight of an inferiority complex that hasn’t quite managed to extricate itself from her shoulders? It manages to bleed into even this ( Lisa’s cookies are undoubtedly going to be better than hers, because she knows Lisa will make Yukina some ). She grumbles as some of the messy not-quite-batter spills over the rim from the strength of her stirring, and she stills the whisk so she can begin adding the last few ingredients.

Flour is poured in intervals, mixed in with baking powder and a moderate bit of salt until it’s all in. Then the stirring starts again, and Sayo doesn’t let her mind wander near as far, can’t with the worry of losing more batter for the first batch. It takes a little while of intermittent stirring, in between which she snags her phone from the other end of the counter and sets a playlist of various band’s cover songs, for the batter to be at a consistency that is acceptable.

She’s got a baking sheet at the ready over one of the trays, ensuring it’s in place before using the stirring spoon to begin placing dollops of batter over it. Equidistant apart so they don’t end up expanding over toward one another and creating some kind of cookie amalgam that most certainly won’t look appealing. A few seconds where she uses the spoon to the best of her ability to bunch the cookie batter into circles before she raises the tray and makes her way over to the oven. She had at least the foresight to preheat it earlier, and as it’s ready, she slides the tray and sets on a timer for twelve minutes.

In that time, there’s little else she can do but either waste away time on her phone, or prepare another batch of batter because the ones she put in are likely faulty in some way.

As much as the latter is preferred, Sayo chooses instead the former, opening up a search engine to look up other cookie recipes. Some of them are pretty interesting, though there are quite a few that has Sayo scrunch her nose at the thought of, even having the unfortunate sweet tooth that she does. But there are a couple recipes that catch her eye for adding in some other flare that makes them different from most of the simple recipes. Some that add cinnamon, powder it on top, some that drizzle the dough in honey, powdered sugar. But what catches her eye most of all? A recipe that ends up with cookies in the rough shape of a cat’s head.

She can’t not try that, and she quickly screencaps the page among some others. Forget it, those ones that are in the oven can just be her own personal stash upstairs, this is a much better idea, and certainly something Yukina would like more ( right? ). The other ones give her ideas as well, and she prematurely goes to the pantry to see what she can ferret out of the family’s shelves.

The timer buzzes sooner than Sayo expects, had time really gone that quickly? She stumbles out of the pantry with quite a selection of other ingredients to experiment with and haphazardly dumps them to the island so she can get to the cookies in the oven.

There’s nothing overly wrong about them, but in the same light, there’s nothing that really makes them stand out. They’re kind of lumpy and uneven in a couple places, and some of them are a bit larger than others, but overall they just seem… kind of bland in a way. She hadn’t added much beyond the vanilla extract and a bit more sugar than had really been called for, so they weren’t really any specific kind of cookie, just an abstract ‘cookie’ so to speak. Sayo’s tongue clicks against her teeth at this revelation, and resigns to her fate of making another batch.

Well, she certainly couldn’t use the previous bit of batter, with how underwhelming the cookies looked, so it’s unceremoniously washed away into the garbage disposal section of the sink in the process of cleaning out the bowl. Once it’s dried, Sayo returns to the island and flicks her gaze between all of the available ingredients in indecision.

Cinnamon had always had a pleasant flavor in Sayo’s opinion, and while she couldn’t speak for Yukina’s tastes, surely it wouldn’t hurt to add a dash of cinnamon to each of the cookies before setting them into the oven. That is, once she went through the process of stirring everything and shaping them on the pans.

Her arms are going to murder her tomorrow if she keeps this up.

At some point, her mom peers into the kitchen, taking a moment to take in the sight of Sayo, still in her jeans and blouse, with no shortage of flour marks about her thighs and sides. There are some stains of chocolate and other things up near her wrists, thankfully having had the sense to roll up her sleeves before beginning this process. She quietly announced herself to Sayo, receiving only a sideways glance and a nod to show she was listening while still stirring into the bowl. Ah, so they were going to retire to their room for the night, that would be troublesome, but Sayo could endeavor to make less noise. With an affirmative nod of the head, she bid her mother goodnight and wished for the word to get passed on to her father before she was left alone again.

She’s on the second batch now, having made what could objectively be regarded as cat faces on the first sheet-covered tin, complete with little upside-down chocolate chip eyes and a tasteless food coloring mouth. With any luck, they wouldn’t look like absolute abominations when they were finished baking. The first tin, the one previously used for the round of boring cookies had been cleaned and re-sheeted for the next batch, and once they too are aligned and shapes, she makes sure to dust them with cinnamon, even pressing a bit into the dough before fixing up the shapes.

One set of cinnamon, and one with honey over the top. With any luck, they’ll be good, but she can’t really afford to take a break. There are still two other sorts of cookies she wants to try her hand at, and she makes to get right into it, washing the bowl for the second time tonight and beginning yet again with the cookie batter. In between stirring and dumping in chocolate chips, she snags one of the bland cookies now that they’ve cooled some and tentatively takes a bite. Certainly sweet, with the slightest hint of sea-salt that she had used globally, but aside from that, they are about as plain as expected.

Oh well, at least they could be used as a pick me up. Better than nothing.

The next batch of cookies finished in five minutes, which works out quite nicely, as the next two sets will be done soon. Half of the batter is separated into another, smaller bowl and what remains is given double the chocolate chips, almost turning the batter a darker brown with the amount being mixed in. The seperated batter receives not more chocolate chips, but instead generous spoonfuls of peanut butter to be mixed in. The color is still more brown than the others, but nowhere near as brown as the chocolate overload cookies, and the mixture of the peanut butter almost gives it a splotchy look. She had been going for an attempt to mimic calico colors but whatever, this could still work.

Once the two trays in the oven are finished, and she sets them both on the counter so she can move the cookies to a plate, she immediately re-sheets them and sets to work making the final round of cat-shapes cookies. Since both sets have a darker look, she finds some white chocolate chips and uses those for the eyes instead. And finally, the last batch of cookies goes into the oven, to be done with in eleven minutes.

Perfect, that would be enough time to clean up the mess she’s so poorly made of the kitchen. To say nothing of her own appearance that would need to be fixed before she went to bed.

It takes remarkably less time than she expects, returning the perishables to the fridge as soon as she’s finished with them. Even the cookies that have been placed on plates are cooling at a decent rate, enough that they maintain their malleability so Sayo can place two chocolate chips near the top of the cat’s head, meant to mimic cat ears, and doing a just-passing C-grade of it. Once they’re all prepared, she places the sets of plates into the fridge, as far back as she can manage so they aren’t a hassle for her parents in the morning, and all that’s left for her to do is wait for the final two to finish baking.

They come and go, and the calico attempts are surprisingly decent now that they’ve baked and risen. It almost actually looks like a cat, if not for the way some of the white chocolate chips melted and began flowing down indents, making less of a circle and more of… well she didn’t know what sort of shape that was. They too receive their very own cat ears, and once they’ve cooled enough to maintain their shape, she sets them into the fridge too.

Finally, all’s well that ends well. The kitchen looks decent enough, a couple stray lines of flour here and there, but for the most part it’s clean. All the pans she’d used have been washed and placed in the drying rack, the cookie wrappers, sheets all that sort of stuff had been sorted and placed accordingly for trash this weekend. She’s returned all the ingredients to their rightful places, wrapping the chocolate chip bags carefully so they wouldn’t spill. All that’s really left to do is to fix her own appearance, so she heads upstairs after quietly shutting off the oven and the lights.

She’ll shower, probably use double the soup to make sure all the honey and chocolate on her arms gets cleaned off, and then crash. It’s gotten kind of late for a school night, though she has to thank her parents for not harassing her about going to bed on time today. It seems even they understood how important getting this right for Yukina was.

...Ah yes, Yukina. As the spray comes down over Sayo’s head and the water drags brilliant turquoise hair over her face, she can’t help but feel a blush rise to her cheeks, and not from the heat of the water. It certainly wasn’t the most extravagant gift to give someone who meant as much to Sayo as Yukina did, but she hoped it would get the point across. Tsugumi had often told her how important it was to give gifts that were considered with love and care from the giver, and she had been the one to recommend trying her hand at baking something for Yukina rather than going out and buying some.

Now that she’s actually gone through with it though? She can feel a tightness in her chest at the thought, and her head slumps forward, forehead meeting the tile of the shower wall.

Gods, she hopes Yukina accepts them tomorrow….


	2. The Result

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And here is the follow up to all of Sayo's hard work baking cookies!

October 25th, her calendar still says when she wakes up in a messy cocoon on her bed, and for a hot second, Sayo almost believes it because she hardly ever forgets to scratch out the date before she goes to bed. She collapses in a mess of dark grey and turquoise and makes a valiant attempt to roll to the side, away from the light of the window before it returns to her. That is, the memory of spending most of last night making a mess of the kitchen and eventually, somehow, coming out with a good deal of semi-cat shapes cookies. It’s enough that she immediately rolls over, and damn well almost off the bed at that, and thrashes around until she untangles herself from the blankets.

The first thing she does is trudge her way over and scratch out the square for the 25th. There.

October 26th. She squints in the direction of the digital clock at her bedside, blearily making out the red numbers telling her it’s around 6 a.m. That’s fine. It gives her enough time to get ready and spend some time before classes at the Kyudo shed.

Morning passes by without incident, assignments and folders neatly tucked into the second section of her backpack. The pencil case she has is filled with the stray writing utensils she has used yesterday, even managing three highlighters, one more than usual, and promptly placed into the smallest pocket. Only after all is packed up does she pull out the school uniform from her closet, going through the motions of getting it on correctly.

6:15, and she sees the screen to her phone light up with a message. Closer inspection shows that it’s from the Roselia group message, and more specifically, sent from Yukina. A reminder that there is no rehearsal this week until their booking at CiRCLE on Friday night. This is good, for a couple reasons, and Sayo quickly taps on Yukina’s profile picture before hovering a finger over the text box in uncertainty.

She doesn’t know what it is that possesses her, when she finally kicks her ass into gear and begins typing a message, to send [ I assume Lisa will be dragging you away this afternoon? ] instead of [ Are you busy after school? ] like any other normal person would. She quietly swears to herself after it’s sent and she rereads it a second time over. Too late to take back though, the moment it’s sent, she can see the trio of dots indicating Yukina is typing.

[ Received -> Minato Yukina >1s ago ( She is not, she took up most of yesterday evening celebrating early with me. I will be at CiRCLE for most of the evening; I have a booking. ) ]

Even on her birthday, she’s electing to practice. A drive that Sayo respects greatly, but also puts something of a damper on her plans, because she’s really not about to go out of her way to Haneoka just to give Yukina cookies in front of everyone there. And risk Hina taking a picture or worse, video? But perhaps there’s hope yet.

[ Sent -> Minato Yukina >11s ago ( To practice? I don’t mean to intrude, but do you mind if I join you? I could stand to run through some of our songs a couple more times somewhere that Hina isn’t knocking on my door every five minutes. ) ]

[ Sent -> Minato Yukina >1s ago ( That is, if it’s no trouble to you. ) ]

She takes a steady breath, glancing one last time to her screen before locking the phone, sliding it into her pocket and slinging her backpack over her shoulder. At least there’s still a lunch to be made before leaving that will give Yukina enough time to answer. As if she isn’t likely to be looking at her phone at the moment expecting an explanation for the question. And as if to answer that thought, there’s a muffled chime from her pocket, but it can wait until lunch is prepared.

One made meal later, Sayo packs the food into its box and neatly closes it, setting it into its own pocket in her backpack before fetching her phone.

[ Received -> Minato Yukina 13 minutes ago ( I don’t mind, but get there as soon as you can, I don’t want to wait forever so I can let you into the studio, I would prefer to use as much of the time as I can to rehearse. ) ]

Well, that quells her worries, and she quickly takes the stairs two at a time back up to her room. Yukina doesn’t want to wait, so her only option is to bring her guitar with her to school. What a pain, she doesn’t want to lug it around all day because as much as she loves it dearly, it gets heavy after half an hour of walking with it, she’s not about to carry it all day. To say nothing of the hallways in between classes becoming chaotic. Perhaps she’ll leave it in the kyudo shed… there’s usually someone in there at all times, and she trusts them enough. Not that she doesn’t trust the disciplinary committee, but more people went into that room, and most didn’t exactly take too kindly to being there, and she didn’t want the guitar caught in any potential crossfire.

Packed safely in with a couple different guitar picks, the case is hefted up over one shoulder. When she returns downstairs, she detours into the kitchen to sling her backpack over the other shoulder. Even being early as it was, the train ride to the academy was going to be hellish.

\---

It was. Squishing into two seats with her guitar case was also hellish. As was trudging her way out to the kyudo shed, but at least at that point, she was able to drop off her guitar. Rinko was there early, to her surprise, and she promised to keep a watchful eye over the guitar for first period, and whenever she had some time off.

The remainder of the day passes by agonizingly slowly, and it’s so very hard to focus in class. At the very least, there’s a burst of luck in that a couple days ago there were exams for a couple classes, so they’re taking it relatively easy for the students, at least until next week she expects. It feels as though it’s been an aeon when the final class bell sounds. Unlike usual, Sayo springs to her feet and immediately rushes for the door with her bag slung wildly over her shoulder. She gets a couple odd stares from students as she tugs her face mask up and strides with purpose to the closest exit that would bring her to the kyudo shed.

True to Rinko’s word, the guitar is there, not quite untouched and not where she left it, but she trusts Rinko had good reason to move it around, and did so with a gentle touch. It’s slung over the shoulder opposite the one it had been earlier that day, and she quickly sets off for the train station. Now that its… prime train hours so to speak, it’s going to be god-awful on board.

And it is. Her guitar needs to be situated between her legs as she’s seated, and her backpack is clutched closely to her body, for fear of the cookies packaged inside being damaged. When finally the train stops at the station near CiRCLE Sayo all but dashes off, taking a second to adjust both of her carry-ons before setting off for the studio. She sighs out a breath of relief when the building comes in view, and she slows down to an even walk. The doors open and at the counter, Marina offers a smile and a wave before returning to what she assumes is paperwork. Electing not to take away from that, Sayo gives a curt nod and walking down the hall toward the studio.

Two firm knocks to the locked door, and soon enough she can hear the twist of the handle, opening to reveal Yukina, also still in her school uniform.

“Sayo.”

“Yukina.”

Curt nod given to her, Yukina steps aside to allow Sayo in, shutting the door quickly behind her and letting it auto lock. Sayo pauses near a stack of chairs off to the side, setting down her backpack with uncharacteristic gentleness, and she can see Yukina regard her with slightly narrowed eyes as she ensures the backpack won’t fall in the midst of their practice. It’s clear she’s a question or few, but Sayo is nothing if not shrewd, and quickly diverts the attention. She can’t give her them yet… she hasn’t even thought of what she was going to say! And on top of that, she had said she would come rehearse with Yukina,so she’d likely be more annoyed than anything that she was derailing practice the minute she got in.

“What songs were you intending to work on? It’ll only take me a few minutes to warm up my fingers.”

She speaks quickly, already in the process of setting her guitar case over one of the longer tables and unzipping it. She can almost feel Yukina’s star upon her back, but makes no show of it, focusing intently on raising her guitar from the case, attaching the strap and setting into place around her shoulders. Only then does she turn, throwing a faux-curious glance in Yukina’s direction. Even so, there’s a terse silence and Sayo worries she’ll be questioned about her earlier mannerisms immediately, but Yukina eventually turns toward the microphone in the center of the room, walking along the wires.

“I was in the midst of reviewing the lyrics for Heroic Advent. I will do so once more, and when I am finished we will begin. Get your warm ups out of the way quickly.”

Sayo nods in understanding, immediately going to work as she walks to the walls. Yukina has been kind enough to rent out the necessary equipment so it’s as close to the show sound as they will get in practice. As Sayo always said: in practice like its the show, and in the show like you practiced. She gets her own microphone set up for the few parts the entire band is generally supposed to sing, and once her guitar is hooked up properly, they go into the motions.

It’s certainly a different experience to playing as the whole band, and different even to when she plays on her own. It gives her perspective on how the main guitar blends with Yukina’s vocals, and certainly practicing alongside Yukina gives her that extra drive to perform to the best of the best of her abilities, if only to impress her? Maybe not the right words... Live up to expectation more like. Not that she doesn’t want to impress Yukina, because she certainly would like to catch her attention, but she’s content to be playing her best, enough that Yukina doesn’t feel the need to point out flaws or places of improvement in between reruns of the song.

Unlike the earlier part of the day, two hours practically races by, and on a rerun of Heroic Advent that Sayo had long since lost track of the number, Yukina takes a step back from the microphone, stretching her arms out behind her back.

“That will be enough to warrant a break. No more than five minutes, so I suggest getting a drink soon, okay Sayo?”

Five minutes? And some of which will be dedicated to getting a drink from the cafe on Yukina’s part. That leaves little room for her to explain the cookies without feeling like she encroaching on Yukina’s practice time, but perhaps she can make it work.

“I don’t need a drink, I have one on my bag. Go ahead, I’ll tune some of my strings in the meantime.”

Yukina gives a dismissive hum and exits the room with the keycard in hand, leaving Sayo to tune. But that’s not what she does, instead un-slinging the guitar from her shoulders and setting it, gently, on the table her case now rests under. Quickly making her way over to her backpack, she slowly unzips the correct pocket, reaching in to take up the large box holding all of the cat shaped cookies from the previous night. No worse for wear with how much she’s been treating the bag like it’ll shatter at any second. In these last few minutes before she goes through though, she has second thoughts as is customary in gift giving. Taking a step back from her thoughts, they… don’t really look all that much like cats, but she can only hope they will look appealing enough for Yukina to accept. Hesitantly, she take the top off, reaching for the first cookie she can to eat it. She hadn’t even taste-tested all of them… what if they tasted like trash!?

She’s picked up one of the calico-looking ones, and she shakily bites a chunk out of it. Well… at least the chocolate peanut butter ones don’t taste bad, and the added bonus of the white chocolate ear she got in tastes even better. But then there are the other three that she made… she’ll have to find one of each to try before she gets back.

And of course, as she’s reaching for the extra chocolatey ones, she can hear the chime of the door’s lock signalling Yukina’s impending entrance. It’s all Sayo can do not to throw the box back to her bag, but she does hastily shove it down into the bag so it’s out of sight. Not soon enough to seem inconspicuous to Yukina though, as if that entire motion wouldn’t have been from the start.

“I presume whatever that is is the reason you’ve been treating your bag like it’ll fall apart any second?”

It would be very easy to refuse, make up some lame excuse and cover it up with redirection toward rehearsal, but with how it is now, that might not be enough to take her attention away. Briefly, she remembers Tsugumi’s words, and those of her sister from last night. Yukina would surely accept them, if at least for the fact that she made an attempt to do something… better to try and fail than to regret never trying at all, or something like that.

“You could say something like that…” Sayo straightens up, raising the box of jostled cookies back out of her bag, and Yukina’s dull golds immediately regard it with equal parts interest and curiosity. And in expectancy she notes, as her gaze raises to Sayo’s.

“I uh…” Hold on, take a breath to gather your bearings. She doesn’t look annoyed, even though it seems as though the aforementioned five minutes are up. “I know you’ve never been big in celebrating birthdays… especially when you could be practicing instead but… I don’t know, I really wanted to do this for you.”

A step is taken in Yukina’s direction and it’s reciprocated with one of Yukina’s own so they are closer, and Sayo extends the box toward her. There’s confusion in her eyes for a quick second as she inspects the box’s contents before a sudden realization dawns in them. And then, astonishingly enough, a hint of fondness as her gaze softens. Aha, so cat shaped cookies had been the right choice.

“I know they’re not all that great, I’ve only been to two of Hazawa Cafe’s baking classes, but she highly recommended I bake something instead of buying something so…”

She trails off as Yukina takes another step and raises a hand to pick out one of the cookies. Judging by the color of the chocolate chip ears and the dusting, it’s one of the cinnamon ones. Oh gods, one of the ones she hasn’t tried yet. Before she can utter some sort of heads up, Yukina tentatively bites into it, chewing thoughtfully for a second before looking to the other sets of cookies. Without having finished the cinnamon one yet, she takes out one of the chocolate-peanut butter ones and eyes it with a hint of a smile at her lips. Arguably, they are the ones that look most like a cat, so she can’t say she’s surprised by Yukina’s favor toward it. Still, it isn’t presentation that matters in the end, it’s how they taste, and Sayo watches like a hawk as Yukina bites into the calico-looking cookie, searching her face for any hint as to her feelings.

“Sayo.” She speaks with a start, and instinctively her eyes meet Yukina’s. “How long did you spend making these for me?”

In her head, Sayo’s mind finishes it with ‘instead of practicing’ and her gaze falls down toward the floor. If her hand was free, she may have raised it to rub at the back of her neck in shame, or something similar.

“...Most of last night. I had a batch that was… less than presentable so they remained at home.”

Yukina is quiet following this, and Sayo trains her eyes on one of the chocolate-chip cats that looks at though it’s staring up at her with a mocking smile. She squints at it, as though glaring will somehow downturn the cookie’s smirk into something less troubling.

“I know, I probably shouldn’t have wasted time on this, and I definitely would have better benefited Roselia by using those hours to work on guitar but…”

“Yes. Roselia certainly would have benefited from more training.” Ah, there they were. Confirming words that made her brows knit together as she stared at the cookie’s face. It falters though, as a hand gently places against her shoulder, sliding down to her upper bicep. It catches her attention, and she quickly snaps her eyes up to look at Yukina, who has stepped in closer, almost against the box she has retracted back against her own chest. “However, I genuinely appreciate the effort you chose to put into these instead.” And then her lips do form a smile, a soft, fond thing that Sayo has not seen in a very long time, and it catches her breath in her throat.

Hesitantly, slowly, as though she expects Sayo to use a free hand and block her, Yukina leans in to press a soft kiss to Sayo’s lips, lingering only for a second or so before taking a step back, and busying herself with eating the rest of the calico cookie.

Sayo is still shell-shocked, and she’s pretty proud of herself for not dropping the rest of the cookies to the floor. The shock amuses Yukina, now that she can see that her affection is not misplaced, and once the calico is finished she goes back to the cinnamon one she had taken first.

“Sayo.” Shakily, she nods her head in affirmation, because while she’s blankly staring she did hear her. “Once we finish with our rehearsal, we can share the rest of them in the cafeteria, yes?”

For once, Sayo absolutely cannot wait to get done with rehearsal and pack up her guitar.

**Author's Note:**

> Catch me on twitter @HaraHanzo to see me shout about all the writing I should be doing. I also take requests to help keep my mind off big stuff :V Thanks for readin!!!!!


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